Pte Thomas Northwood, 26295, 122nd Company Machine Gun Corps(Infantry), was killed in action in Flanders on December 4th, 1916. He was aged 25, single, and the son of Francis and Elizabeth Northwood, of 118 Wellington Street, Luton.
A letter to Mrs Northwood from the Rev F. Leslin Hilditch, a Church of England Chaplain to the Forces, said a 4.2 shell hit the dug-out Thomas was in, killing him instantly. He was buried in a military cemetery not far from the spot where he fell.
Events have moved with appalling swiftness during the past week. Austria is at war with Servia [Serbia], Germany is at war with Russia and France, and we ourselves are on the very verge of war with Germany. We are confronted in Europe with a situation that has no parallel since the first Napoleon was at the height of his career of almost world-wide conquest.
